The above noted parent applications, deal with various techniques for the total technique welding of plastic tubes where no contaminants can enter or leave the tube lumen. In general, the welding techniques involve an axially aligned melt/wipe process where the ends of the tube sections are melted to be rendered into a molten state and then pressed together to become integral.
The above techniques are particularly desirable for wide spread uses including CAPD, blood processing and other techniques where it is necessary to replace used consumables. In such practices it is necessary to cut the tube leading from the used bag to the patient and then weld a new tube section from a fresh bag to the tube section leading from the patient. It would be desirable if the tube cutting or disconnect procedure or the tube joining or connect procedure could be made as simple as possible in order to avoid difficulties in performing these procedures.
The prior art devices for connecting and disconnecting plastic tubes requires the manual actuation of various switches to individually control the operation of the different components. It would be desirable if such a device could be automated in its operation.
It would also be desirable if such a device for performing the above procedures could include various safety mechanisms to assure proper operation of the device.